Chevy Avalanche Fan Club Home Made Laptop Mount

Well I have my laptop mount done! All in all I am satisfied with the results. Here are the steps and a few pictures to help guide you if you want to try this, it’s really fairly straight forward.

Take the cup holder tray out. You just find a place to get a hold of it and it will pull right out. I used the space that was below the cup holder to mount my power inverter. Really its more just laid in there, I made a little tray out of foam board and then a strip of the same material to wedge it into place. I drilled 2 holes into the ductwork that feeds the air to the rear. This will help keep things cool down there. Sorry, no picture of the inside it came out dark.

Next I cut a piece of plywood that was ok to use as a tray. It is a little smaller in width than my laptop. I screwed blocks of 2X2 scraps onto the plywood. These act as stops that will fit into the opening that is left when you removed that cup holder.

I then covered the tray in some 1/8” foam that I had around here. I tried to make the front look OK but did not worry much about the back. I did cover those 2X2 blocks because they will be rubbing the console as I drive and I did not want marks or rattles. I added two strips of the foam that are 3 pieces thick and also 3 thick along the bottom of the tray where the laptop will rest. This will give it a little padding that I hope will help absorb some shock and help avoid any problems down the road with the laptop.

Front of Laptop Tray

And the Back:

Now you will notice a couple of things by looking at these pictures. First there is a black strap going between two slots that I cut into the tray. That is there to attach a bungee cord to. The second picture shows the bungee cord and its hooked to the strap. What I did was take the bungee cord and feed it down one side, inside the area where the cup holder was then go under that ductwork and come back up on the other side. Depending on the length on your cord you may need to get inventive! I wrapped it and hooked one hook back to the cord and bent the loop so it will not fall back under that duct. The other hook will now attach to the black strap that you see on the tray. Just set the tray in place, reach under it and hook the bungee cord up. I then made some “bump stops” out of some black foam packing material that was lying around here. I cut it so it would fit under the tray and hold against the top of the very front of the console. You would pull up and stretch the bungee a little, put the foam stops under the top of the tray and let off of the tray, The bungee will then hold in down. Do not pull to hard, the ductwork is good plastic but I don’t know what it would take to break it!

This picture shows a close up of the drivers side of the tray. You can see how I cut the foam packing to fit the lip of the console. I have not fastened it to the tray, it just sets there fine with the tension from that bungee!

It may look like duct tape but believe me it is not Grin

I had a couple of elastic straps with velcro from a mask I use at night for sleep apenia. THey work PERFECT for this app!

View from the rear seat.

You can see that the screen sets right up in front of the dash. This is good and bad. The grarshift will work fine BUT you can not close the screen until you put it in park, in drive the lever for the shifter is in the way. It does not rub or or get in the way unless you try to close it up.

There is room under the tray to feed the cords up for the cigarette lighter. I fit the power supply for the laptop into the cubby hole right under the keyboard of the laptop, the one that is in the top of the lower console. The power cord will run under the tray and back down to the power inverter. I have a wireless mouse and I am going to put the transmitter of it on the top shelf of the console on a rubber pad. I find by laying things on a good rubber pag they do not move much.

I put a CD in the drive bay, you need to unstrap it to do this, and drove over some fairly rough roads. It did not skip any! I was testing a lot today and it works fine for what I want! You can see the screen fine and there is miminmal vibration on rough roads. On a good Hwy, there is none! You can still use the center consol, the storage that has the lid with the laptop mounted. The only thing I lost was the cup holders and I am looking for some good replacements now.

So, to take the laptop out all you do is unfasten those two Velcro straps. If you want the tray out you can reach under and unhook the bungee strap. And the GOOD thing is you can just drop the cup holder back in and you are back to stock! Well almost, I am planning on leaving that power inverter down inside of the consloe under the cup hlders. And there are those holes that I drilled to help keep things cool!

Now guess what is next?? Well I am working on that rack so I can carry some Swing 'N Loads with me on my GTG's. When they are on the rack that is above the hard covers I can not see out of the rear window. I am thinking IF I can find a LOW LUX USB webcam, I can mount it under that rack, maybe into a plastic box to help keep it out of the weather! It would not be near as nice as a SnakeEyes system but it may serve my use well! If anyone can help me find the right camera I will share the mod when its done! I have seen ones on eBay that claim to work in low light but what they do is put LED's around the camera lens to add light. I can not use them!

Ohh, one more mod to share! My wife always complained about the headrests on the '02 Z66. They are the good ones that can adjust many ways. But they just never fit her well. She picked up one of those neck pillows, the kind that wrap around your neck. She liked it but it was a pain in the neck Wink

to keep putting on and taking off every time we went somewhere. So I had her put it around the headrest instead of around her neck! Now she is happy and when she is happy so am I!!

Butch